Restaurant yield management portal

ABSTRACT

A system and method to optimize the yield of a restaurant having perishable inventory is described. Through a card company, a restaurant can market incentives to make reservations during an off-peak time to enrolled card members. Offer marketing is based on stated customer preferences, and conducted via, for example, a website, email, or text message. Reservations are made, for example, via a centralized booking service. The incentive is fulfilled to the card member in a coupon-less manner. The card company receives a commission from the participating restaurant for every such sale.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, claims priority to and thebenefit of, U.S. Ser. No. 11/644,018 filed on Dec. 22, 2006 and entitled“Restaurant Yield Management Portal,” which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to targeted consumer marketing foroptimizing the yield of perishable inventory.

2. Background Art

Many industries, such as restaurants, hotels, and theatres have fixedcapacity and uneven demand patterns. In the periods where the demand isbelow the capacity, the merchant has excess inventory that perishesquickly. The perishable inventory may include unused tables at arestaurant, unoccupied rooms at a hotel, or empty seats at a theatre. Ifnot utilized, this inventory will produce zero returns. Merchants in thepast have tried to solve this problem by offering broad-based discountsto spur demand during low-demand periods. For example, some retailmerchants have off-season discount sales. As another example, someairline providers sells unsold seats at a discount over the Internet.This broad-based approach, however, results in a low success rate,because the ratio of number of offers to number of acceptances is high.Further, notification of these broad-based discounts is usually onlyavailable to existing customers of a merchant or individualsgeographically located near the merchant.

Several reservation platforms exist, such as OpenTable.com, run by OpenTable, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif.; RewardsNetwork.com, run by RewardsNetwork, Inc. of Chicago, Ill.; and DinnerBroker.com, run byDinnerBroker, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif.

OpenTable.com is a supplier of reservation, table management and guestmanagement software for restaurants. The OpenTable.com reservationsystem receives, on a daily basis, information about available inventoryfrom merchants. A merchant connects with the OpenTable.com reservationplatform and provides details of open and booked tables throughout theday. An associated electronic reservation book is used by the restaurantto continually manage all its reservations, not only reservations madeonline. Because this electronic reservation book is connected to theOpenTable.com reservation platform, a database of inventory that isbeing marketed by the reservation platform is dynamically updated. Thisis referred to herein as dynamic inventory. Therefore, when theelectronic reservation book changes at a particular location,OpenTable.com servers quickly obtain that information and provide it totheir customers. OpenTable.com has a loyalty program to incent users,where a user receives a certain number of rewards points for a givenreservation. The rewards points can later be redeemed, for example, forgift certificates valid at various restaurants. However, OpenTable.comdoes not actively market the inventory to its users based on any userpreferences. Instead, a user is limited to searching for a restaurant byoneself.

RewardsNetwork.com focuses on the couponless fulfillment of incentivesusing cash and rewards points. Over the telephone, merchants allocate aspecific set of tables to RewardsNetwork.com, and this allocation doesnot change on a daily or weekly basis. That is, their availability isnot dynamic, and merchants cannot respond to short term fluctuations ininventory that cannot be predicted ahead of time. RewardsNetwork.com canprovide couponless fulfillment of its discounts through a credit on amember's credit card statement, after the user pays full price at thetime of purchase. Alternatively, the value of the discount can beconverted into rewards points and deposited into a specified rewardsaccount (airline or otherwise) associated with the user. LikeOpenTable.com, RewardsNetwork.com does not actively market the inventoryto its users based on any user preferences.

DinnerBroker.com has a website on which offers are presented to users.Merchants can make available different offers for different times of dayon different days of the week. The slate of offers changes periodically,such as once a day or once a week. A user contacts the restaurant tomake a reservation, and then prints out a coupon to be redeemed at thepoint of sale. The incentive is a cash incentive, because it provides adiscount at a point of sale. DinnerBroker.com does not actively marketthe inventory to its users based on any user preferences.

In addition to the lack of marketing of inventory to customers based oncustomer preferences, these systems also do not provide, in a singleintegrated environment, any couponless financial incentive, dynamicinventory offers and loyalty points to customers willing to consumegoods at low periods of demand, which for the case of restaurants wouldbe the off-peak hours. They also do not send out offers based onconsumer differentiation on the basis of how active a consumer is inusing the system. What is needed is a system that sends out offers totargeted consumers based on consumer preferences.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Customer preferences may be solicited to gather explicit cardmemberpreferences, and/or mining of consumer data, merchant data, andtransaction data can be used to determine implicit CM preferences. Thisdata may be collected using a network of merchants and customers, suchas the closed loop network run by American Express Corp. of New York,N.Y. Customer demand can be predicted at the micro-segment level toestablish pricing that maximizes the return on fixed investment for themerchant. The demand patterns of a merchant can also be analyzed todetermine periods of excess inventory of the merchant. For low-demandperiods and/or low-demand locations, selected cardholders may be offereddiscounts to particular merchants.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, perishableinventory is targeted to potential customers for sale during off-peakhours. Customers availing the promotional offers are credited fordiscounts directly via a statement credit, thereby resulting in acouponless system of rebate. Therefore, the couponless system manifestsitself as a financial incentive to the customers. Since customers shoplike a regular customer who is not availing any such discounts, itavoids the hassle of presenting coupons to the merchant who is providingthese discounts. Through a card membership program, an associated cardcompany can charge the merchant on a commission basis for every suchsale incurred.

According to further embodiments of the invention, the marketing ofdiscounts is customized based on cardholder shopping patterns,cardholder preferences, and/or demographics. Instead of offeringbroad-based discounts to everyone via direct or outbound marketing, thissystem and method enables merchants to instead reach consumers who, viatheir own search methods or their preferences, indicate potentialinterest. Using pricing as a lever, the cardholders with specificexplicitly stated or implicitly revealed preferences are targeted toshift demand from peak periods or locations to non-peak periods orlocations, and to increase the non-peak demand by location as well astime period. Merchants can thereby target offers to potential customerswith the highest potential interest in their restaurants, helping themto generate incremental business at lower cost relative to broad-basedpromotions. Cardholders also benefit, as they have the option of buyinggoods and/or services that fit their preferences at a discounted price.Cardholders can also sign up as new members to avail benefits offered byvarious embodiments of the invention. Alternatively, card holders canalso, at any point of time, opt out of any service offered by variousembodiments of the invention.

Further embodiments, features, and advantages of the present invention,as well as the structure and operation of the various embodiments of thepresent invention, are described in detail below with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS/FIGURES

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a partof the specification, illustrate the present invention and, togetherwith the description, further serve to explain the principles of theinvention and to enable a person skilled in the pertinent art to makeand use the invention.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of example data sources for data mining.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a sample record of charge that may be usedto obtain customer, merchant, and/or transaction data.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example method by which customersmay be targeted according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 4A-4D are charts illustrating demand for example individualrestaurants on a per-day basis.

FIGS. 5A-5C are charts illustrating demand for restaurants acrossexample geographic areas on a per-day basis.

FIGS. 6A-6C are charts illustrating demand for restaurants acrossexample neighborhoods on a per-day basis.

FIGS. 7A-7B are charts illustrating demand by an example customer on aper-day and per-hour basis, respectively.

FIGS. 7C-7D are charts illustrating demand by another example customeron a per-day and per-hour basis, respectively.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a method for processing data according to anexample concentric circles algorithm.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of an example result from the method of FIG.8.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a method for further processing data accordingto an example concentric circles algorithm.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a method for targeting customers.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system useful forimplementing the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a general flowchart showing various processes involved in anexemplary restaurant yield management portal.

FIG. 14 illustrates further details of the restaurant yield managementportal, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 15 illustrates yet another embodiment of the restaurant yieldmanagement portal.

FIG. 16 illustrates a process flow for uploading inventory to anexemplary restaurant yield management portal, according to an embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 17 illustrates a process flow for making reservations, according toan embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 shows an exemplary transaction for a restaurant yield managementportal, according to yet another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 19 shows an example of an output file created as a result ofvarious processes described in the restaurant yield management portal,according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 20A shows an example of a newsletter, according to an embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 20B shows an example of a “Flash” alert, according to an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 21 shows an exemplary method of matching preferences.

The present invention will be described with reference to theaccompanying drawings. The drawing in which an element first appears istypically indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the correspondingreference number.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION I. Overview

While specific configurations and arrangements are discussed, it shouldbe understood that this is done for illustrative purposes only. A personskilled in the pertinent art will recognize that other configurationsand arrangements can be used without departing from the spirit and scopeof the present invention. It will be apparent to a person skilled in thepertinent art that this invention can also be employed in a variety ofother applications.

The terms “consumer,” “customer,” “participant,” “cardmember,”“cardholder” and/or the plural form of these terms are usedinterchangeably throughout herein to refer to those persons or entitiescapable of accessing, using, be affected by and/or benefiting from thepresent invention.

Furthermore, the terms “business,” “service provider,” or “merchant” maybe used interchangeably with each other and shall mean any person,entity, distributor system, software and/or hardware that is a provider,broker and/or any other entity in the distribution chain of goods orservices. For example, a merchant may be a grocery store, a retailstore, a travel agency, a service provider, an on-line merchant or thelike.

1. Transaction Accounts and Instrument

A “transaction account” as used herein refers to an account associatedwith an open account or a closed account system (as described below).The transaction account may exist in a physical or non-physicalembodiment. For example, a transaction account may be distributed innon-physical embodiments such as an account number, frequent-flyeraccount, telephone calling account or the like. Furthermore, a physicalembodiment of a transaction account may be distributed as a financialinstrument.

A financial transaction instrument may be traditional plastictransaction cards, titanium-containing, or other metal-containing,transaction cards, clear and/or translucent transaction cards, foldableor otherwise unconventionally-sized transaction cards, radio-frequencyenabled transaction cards, or other types of transaction cards, such ascredit, charge, debit, pre-paid or stored-value cards, or any other likefinancial transaction instrument. A financial transaction instrument mayalso have electronic functionality provided by a network of electroniccircuitry that is printed or otherwise incorporated onto or within thetransaction instrument (and typically referred to as a “smart card”), orcan be a fob having a transponder and/or an RFID reader.

2. Open Versus Closed Cards

“Open cards” are financial transaction cards that are generally acceptedat different merchants. Examples of open cards include the AmericanExpress®, Visa®, MasterCard® and Discover® cards, which may be used atmany different retailers and other businesses. In contrast, “closedcards” are financial transaction cards that may be restricted to use ina particular store, a particular chain of stores or a collection ofaffiliated stores. One example of a closed card is a pre-paid gift cardthat may only be purchased at, and only be accepted at, a clothingretailer, such as The Gap® store.

3. Stored Value Cards

Stored value cards are forms of transaction instruments associated withtransaction accounts, wherein the stored value cards provide cashequivalent value that may be used within an existing payment/transactioninfrastructure. Stored value cards are frequently referred to as gift,pre-paid or cash cards, in that money is deposited in an accountassociated with the card before use of the card is allowed. For example,if a customer deposits ten dollars of value into the account associatedwith the stored value card, the card may only be used for payments up toten dollars.

4. Use of Transaction Accounts

With regard to use of a transaction account, users may communicate withmerchants in person (e.g., at the box office), telephonically, orelectronically (e.g., from a user computer via the Internet). During theinteraction, the merchant may offer goods and/or services to the user.The merchant may also offer the user the option of paying for the goodsand/or services using any number of available transaction accounts.Furthermore, the transaction accounts may be used by the merchant as aform of identification of the user. The merchant may have a computingunit implemented in the form of a computer-server, although otherimplementations are possible.

In general, transaction accounts may be used for transactions betweenthe user and merchant through any suitable communication means, such as,for example, a telephone network, intranet, the global, public Internet,a point of interaction device (e.g., a point of sale (POS) device,personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile telephone, kiosk, etc.), onlinecommunications, off-line communications, wireless communications, and/orthe like.

5. Account and Merchant Numbers

An “account,” “account number” or “account code”, as used herein, mayinclude any device, code, number, letter, symbol, digital certificate,smart chip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or otheridentifier/indicia suitably configured to allow a consumer to access,interact with or communicate with a financial transaction system. Theaccount number may optionally be located on or associated with anyfinancial transaction instrument (e.g., rewards, charge, credit, debit,prepaid, telephone, embossed, smart, magnetic stripe, bar code,transponder or radio frequency card).

The account number may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic,electronic, magnetic, radio frequency (RF), wireless, audio and/oroptical device capable of transmitting or downloading data from itselfto a second device. A customer account number may be, for example, asixteen-digit credit card number. Each credit card issuer has its ownnumbering system, such as the fifteen-digit numbering system used byAmerican Express Company of New York, N.Y. Each issuer's credit cardnumbers comply with that company's standardized format such that anissuer using a sixteen-digit format will generally use four spaced setsof numbers in the form of:

-   -   N₁N₂N₃N₄ N₅N₆N₇N₈ N₉N₁₀N₁₁N₁₂ N₁₃N₁₄N₁₅N₁₆

The first five to seven digits are reserved for processing purposes andidentify the issuing institution, card type, etc. In this example, thelast (sixteenth) digit is typically used as a checksum for thesixteen-digit number. The intermediary eight-to-ten digits are used touniquely identify the customer, card holder or cardmember.

A merchant account number may be, for example, any number oralpha-numeric characters that identifies a particular merchant forpurposes of card acceptance, account reconciliation, reporting and thelike.

6. RFID and Transmission of Magnetic Stripe Data

It should be noted that the transfer of information in accordance withthe present invention, may be done in a format recognizable by amerchant system or account issuer. In that regard, by way of example,the information may be transmitted from an RFID device to an RFIDreader, or from the RFID reader to the merchant system in magneticstripe or multi-track magnetic stripe format.

Because of the proliferation of devices using magnetic stripe format,the standards for coding information in magnetic stripe format werestandardized by the international Organization for Standardization inISO/IEC 7811-n (characteristics for identification cards) which areincorporated herein by reference. The ISO/IEC 7811 standards specify theconditions for conformance, physical characteristics for the card(warpage and surface distortions) and the magnetic stripe area(location, height and surface profile, roughness, adhesion, wear andresistance to chemicals), the signal amplitude performancecharacteristics of the magnetic stripe, the encoding specificationincluding technique (MFM), angle of recording, bit density, fluxtransition spacing variation and signal amplitude, the data structureincluding track format, use of error correction techniques, user datacapacity for ID-1, ID-2 and ID-3 size cards, and decoding techniques,and the location of encoded tracks.

Typically, magnetic stripe information is formatted in three tracks.Certain industry information must be maintained on certain portion ofthe tracks, while other portions of the tracks may have open datafields. The contents of each track and the formatting of the informationprovided to each track is controlled by the ISO/IEC 7811 standard. Forexample, the information must typically be encoded in binary. Track 1 isusually encoded with user information (i.e., name) in alphanumericformat. Track 2 is typically comprised of discretionary andnondiscretionary data fields. In one example, the nondiscretionary fieldmay comprise 19 characters and the discretionary field may comprise 13characters. Track 3 is typically reserved for financial transactions andincludes enciphered versions of the user's personal identificationnumber, country code, current units amount authorized per cycle,subsidiary accounts, and restrictions.

As such, where information is provided in accordance with the presentinvention, it may be provided in magnetic stripe track format. Forexample, the counter values, authentication tags and encryptedidentifiers, described herein, may be forwarded encoded in all or aportion of a data stream representing data encoded in, for example,track 2 or track 3 format.

II. Targeted Marketing

As shown in FIG. 1, several sources may be leveraged to gatherinformation about consumers, merchants and the transactions betweenthem. With a network 102, such as the closed loop network run byAmerican Express Corp. of New York, N.Y., it is possible to gathermerchant data 104, customer data 106, and transaction data 108 oftransactions by a merchant and/or customer based on records from thenetwork owner. In a closed loop network, merchant data 104 is knownbecause of the relationship between the network owner, such as AmericanExpress, and many merchants. Cardholder data 106 is known because of therelationship between the network owner and many cardholders. When acardholder enters into a transaction with a merchant, such as by swipinga transaction instrument through a card reader, information about thatpurchase is added to transaction data 108. Merchant data 104, customerdata 106, and transaction data 108 need not be obtained from a closedloop network, but may be obtained from alternate sources, such as fromcorporate records, from information received directly from customers andmerchants, or through purchase of the information from external sources.Customer relationship management (“CRM”) data 110 and external data 112may also be used to determine information about customers and merchants.External data 112 may include data provided by independent merchantrating services, such as, for example, the ratings provided by ZagatSurvey, LLC, of New York, N.Y.

Merchant data includes, for example and without limitation, the locationof the merchant, the merchant's industry, and the amount of inventorymoved by the merchant at various days, times, and locations. Customerdata includes, for example and without limitation, the types of servicesand products the customer uses, the merchants the customers usuallypurchase from, as well as spend habits and spend capacity of thecustomers.

When a customer interacts with a merchant in a transaction, transactiondata is produced. Simple retail purchases may result in basictransaction information, as shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is an illustrationof a sample receipt 202, showing the type of information that may beobtained from the simple retail purchase. Merchant name and locationinformation 204, day of transaction 206, time of transaction 208, amountof transaction 210, and customer name 212 can all be obtained from arecord of charge such as receipt 202. If the transaction is moredetailed, enhanced information can also be obtained. For example, if acustomer books a flight with an airline, city pairs and dates ofdeparture and/or return may be obtained in addition to the basictransaction information. Most of the consumer transaction data comesfrom data collected when the customer's transaction account is used,such as, for example, when the customer uses a credit card. However, areasonable assumption can be made that consumers paying by cash or checkexhibit similar purchasing patterns as consumers paying by, for example,a credit card.

All this merchant, consumer, and transaction data may be stored in adatabase, referred to herein as a data warehouse. Extensive data miningcan be performed on the information in the data warehouse to matchpotential customers with merchants. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustratingthe method in which data is taken from the data warehouse and processedto produce a set of targeted customers for particular merchants. Asshown in FIG. 3, data warehouse 302 stores merchant data 104, consumerdata 106, and transaction data 108. Data warehouse 302 may exist, forexample, on a computer usable medium.

Much of the collected data in data warehouse 302 is not useful fortargeting analysis. Useful data is thus taken out of data warehouse 302and transformed so that it is easy to analyze. This data is stored in adatabase specific to the application, referred to herein as a data mart.Much like a data warehouse is a collection of a wide variety ofinformation relating to a wide variety of applications, a data mart is asmaller collection of data specific to a particular application. Forexample, if it is useful to identify customers who would be most likelyto respond to a discount offered by a particular merchant at alow-demand period of the merchant, the data may be stored in aninventory turnover data mart 304 that contains information relevant toinventory turnover. Data mart 304 may be stored, for example, on acomputer usable medium. In data mart 304, the merchant data, consumerdata, and transaction data are reorganized for the specific purpose ofthe analysis.

Merchant information may be extracted from data mart 304. To the extentthat merchant information is combined with related transactioninformation, merchant data and transaction data are segmented. Thesegmentation may be based, for example and without limitation, on time,industry, location, complementary merchants, and/or competing merchantsto identify inventory turnover opportunities using a merchant demandpattern identification prioritization and validation algorithm.

An inventory turnover opportunity exists when a merchant has low demand,also referred to as excess inventory. Excess inventory occurs when themerchant has more of its product than is wanted by its consumers. Excessinventory may include extra units of a product if the merchant is amanufacturer or retailer. Excess inventory may also include empty tablesat a restaurant, empty seats on an airplane, or empty rooms in a hotel.Some merchants have very little excess inventory, and thus may not needto target customers for discounted business. In some cases, it may bedesired to target existing customers to shift demand from peak periodsand locations to non-peak period and locations, such as when the demandfor a good or service is greater than the inventory at a particular timeor location. In other cases, it may be desired to target potentialcustomers to add to the non-peak demand for a location or time period.Although restaurants will be used as an example herein, one of skill inthe pertinent art(s) will recognize that the process applies in asimilar manner to any merchant of goods and services, such as andwithout limitation, a manufacturer, an airline company, a retailer, anentertainment company such as a theatre or cineplex, and a hotelcompany.

In the restaurant example, certain high-end restaurants may be in suchhigh demand that they do not suffer from a lack of reservations duringspecific times. FIG. 4A is a chart showing the demand for an examplehigh-demand Restaurant #1. As shown, the demand for Restaurant #1 isfairly even, and there are no real periods of low demand. Othermerchants may have periods of low demand and could benefit by offeringdiscounts to customers willing to purchase their products or servicesduring those low demand periods. These merchants may be identified usinga merchant demand pattern algorithm. Such an algorithm analyzes themerchant data to determine, for example, the dates and times that themerchant posts the most and/or least revenue. The algorithm may alsocompare similar establishments with a similar customer base and/orsimilar locations to identify demand patterns.

Following the restaurant example, other restaurants may experience lowdemand periods on certain days of the week. FIGS. 4B and 4C are chartsshowing the demand per day for sample Restaurant #2 and sampleRestaurant #3, respectively. As shown, Restaurant #2 and Restaurant #3experience high demand in the middle of the week. However, Restaurant #2experiences periods of low demand on Saturdays and Sundays. Similarly,Restaurant #3 experiences periods of low demand on Saturdays andMondays, as it is closed on Sundays. Restaurant #2 and Restaurant #3 arethus identified as merchants having an opportunity to benefit from aninventory turnover program on weekends. FIG. 4D is a chart showingdemand per day of another sample Restaurant #4, which has high demand onthe weekends, but low demand on weekdays. Restaurant #4 is thusidentified as a merchant having an opportunity to benefit from inventoryturnover assistance on weekdays.

Low-demand periods may also vary by geography. For example, as shown inFIG. 5A, restaurants in the New York City metro area may generallyexperience a low-demand period on Mondays. When the geographicallocation is narrowed down to Brooklyn, restaurants may generallyexperience a low-demand period during weekdays, as shown in FIG. 5B.When the geographical location is narrowed down to Manhattan,restaurants may generally experience a low-demand period during Sundaysand Mondays, as shown in FIG. 5C.

The geographic locations can be further narrowed down and analyzed byneighborhoods. For example, as shown in FIG. 6A, restaurants on theUpper East Side of New York City experience low-demand periods, and thusexcess capacity, on Mondays. As shown in FIG. 6B, restaurants in thefinancial district of New York City may generally experience low-demandperiods on weekends. As shown in FIG. 6C, restaurants in the CentralPark West neighborhood of New York City may generally experiencelow-demand periods on weekdays.

Low-demand periods may also vary by time of day or month of year.Following the restaurant example, although sonic restaurants may be verybusy in a time slot between 8:00 pm and 11:00 pm, the restaurants mayhave available seating during the time slot between 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm.In another example, some retailers experience a low-demand periodfollowing holidays. In yet another example, merchants in theentertainment industry (such as a theatre) may experience low demand onnon-Friday weekdays. In still another example, a manufacturer, such asan electronics company, may experience lower demand at all times becausea competitor has taken over part of the market.

As mentioned above, merchants that have periods of low demand (excessinventory) are identified based on the merchant information from network102 and other sources such as CRM data 110 and external data 112 thatare stored in data mart 304. Once such merchants are identified, themerchants may be contacted with the information about their demandpatterns. Alternatively, merchants may request that an inventoryturnover analysis be performed for them. If the merchant acceptsinclusion in the inventory turnover program, that merchant'spoint-of-sale (“POS”) data may be integrated into data mart 304. POSdata is useful because it contains information that may not be found inother types of data in data mart 304. For example, although transactiondata may be obtained through purchase records or records of charge ofthe cardholder, those records do not include a record of the specificitems purchased by the cardholder. Specific information may be kept,however, in the POS data records kept internally by the merchant. Forexample, a transaction card provider may know from records of chargethat a cardholder purchased music at a music store, but the music storePUS records will show that the card holder actually purchased classicalmusic at the music store. Adding this POS data to data mart 304 resultsin a more powerful and more accurate targeting of customers most likelyand willing to respond to an offer by the merchant. POS data from themerchant can also be used to validate and segment the opportunity of themerchant to benefit from the inventory turnover program. If the merchantis willing to forego some of the profits made through discounts thatwould bring in additional customers in exchange for having morecustomers at low-demand times, customers whose needs and preferencesmatch those of the merchant can be targeted for marketing.

Consumer data from data mart 304 is therefore analyzed to determinewhich cardholders are most likely to take advantage of a discount offerby the merchant at a particular time or location. Such information canbe gleaned from spending patterns of the cardholder. For example, if acardholder typically makes retail purchases on a certain day of theweek, that cardholder may be likely to take advantage of a discountoffered at a retail store on the same day of the week. As shown in FIGS.7A and 7B, a Customer A may make most of his purchases related to theindustry of the interested merchant on Saturdays at 8:00 pm. Thisinformation can be determined by reviewing the purchase history ofCustomer A. In contrast, as shown in FIGS. 7C and 7D, a Customer B mayalso make most of his purchases related to the industry of theinterested merchant on Saturday, but around 5:00 pm. If the interestedmerchant has excess capacity in the early evenings on Saturdays, suchconsumer data will indicate that Customer B would be most likely toaccept an offer for discounted purchases from the merchant in the earlyevenings on Saturdays.

Cardholders may also be analyzed based on data from competing merchantsand/or complementary merchants. Competing merchants are those who are indirect competition with a given merchant and whose products and/orservices typically replace those of the given merchant. Complementarymerchants are those whose products and/or services are typically sold tosimilar consumer groups and enhance, but do not replace, products and/orservices provided by the given merchant. For example, if a merchantexperiencing a low-demand period is a hotel in a particular city, dataregarding customers who may need overnight accommodations in that citymay be obtained from an airline company offering flights to that city.Similarly, if the merchant experiencing a low-demand period is arestaurant, data regarding customers who may accept discounted mealoffers may be obtained from a hotel near the restaurant.

In this manner, data from data mart 304 is processed to identifycustomers most likely to accept an offer from a particular merchantduring that merchant's low-demand period. One type of algorithm that maybe used is a concentric circles algorithm. A concentric circlesalgorithm primarily uses the consumer transaction information availablefrom a record of charge from swiping a card for making payments. Anyother form of transaction information identifiable with the individualcustomer that captures consumer identification, merchant identification,and/or details of the transaction including time, date, amount,location, and/or detailed or aggregated information about the goods orservices bought and sold through that transaction may also be used. Thisalgorithm may also use demographic information about the merchant andthe consumer. The demographic information may be obtained from internalsources as well as data vendors who maintain and supply detailedpersonal databases of large numbers of consumers across the world.

The POS data from the merchant gives further merchant-specific detailsof the transaction. For example, a retailer may have additional detailsrelated to a single transaction such as the list of retail goods and thequantities as well as unit prices of each of the retail goods purchasedby a consumer during a single transaction. This data may be proprietaryor owned by the merchant, and may or may not be available to thealgorithm. However, the algorithm may be designed to use this datawhenever available.

The algorithm considers the most probable set of customers who may betargeted for increasing the inventory turnover for a particular merchantor class of merchants. Hence, it uses a list that begins with existinghigh spending/highly profitable consumers of the merchant andprogressively includes more consumers depending on the merchant desirefor increased demand or depth of inventory. FIG. 8 is a flowchart of amethod 800 for processing data according to an exemplary concentriccircles algorithm. In step 802, a subset of all the transactions for thegiven merchant and/or location going back as far as possible (forexample, a period of 12 months if available, but preferably 3-5 years ifsystem resources available are adequate to handle the processing load)is identified. This identifies a subperiod, such as days, months,seasons, etc.

In step 804, transaction information is summarized per consumer toinclude the sum of the amount spent, number of transactions andprofitability (if available) by each subperiod. The sub-period size willincrease with the money value of the average transaction.

In step 806, consumer demographic, personal, financial, and summarizedtransaction history information is added for each consumer in the list.

In step 808, physical distance (e.g., as a crow flies, or using surfacetransportation) from the customer to the merchant is added to thealgorithm, using cartographic information and/or electronic informationwherever available.

In step 810, the customer list is sorted by, for example, latestsub-period first, with money spent, number of transactions,profitability (when available), transactions during low demand,transactions during high demand, and physical distance from the merchant(when available) as primary factors. This sorted list is the main orcore circle of consumers to which targeted offers for the merchant maybe made with a higher probability of success. If the analysis isperformed by, for example, a transaction card provider, the sorted listmay identify the customers most likely to take advantage of a jointoffer between the merchant and the transaction card provider. These coreconsumers are illustrated by core concentric circle 902 in FIG. 9.

In step 812, within core circle 902, additional concentric circles aredefined. Each concentric circle corresponds to each partition ofconsumers sorted by amount spent in the latest sub-periods with themerchant.

In step 814, each of the groups defined in step 812 are further sortedand ranked based on the volume of transactions within low and highdemand periods as well as physical distance from the merchant. Thegroups thus formed have the inner circles populated by consumers withhigher probability of responding to a targeted offer to transact withthe merchant during low-demand/low-turnover periods. Group 904 in theinnermost circle corresponds to the customers most likely to respond toa discount offer by the merchant.

Referring to FIG. 10, an additional method 1000 may be used to targetcustomers for forming outer circles around core circle 902. In step1002, customers in the customer list that were not included in corecircle 902 are selected based on the following example characteristics:transactions (e.g., amount per transaction or number of transactions)with competing merchants in the vicinity and in the direct marketingarea (“DMA”), transactions with other competing merchants, transactionswith merchants in the same specific industry category (may not bedirectly competing merchants), and transactions with merchants incomplementary industries.

In step 1004, a similar mechanism to method 800 is used to rank and sortthese consumers by the above characteristics, starting with amount andnumber of transactions with competing merchants in the latestsub-periods, in the same industry category and in the complementaryindustry categories.

In step 1006, each of the groups is subdivided by physical distance fromthe merchant, low/high demand period transactions, and/or demographicinformation, which is used more specifically while grouping withinconsumers having activity in the complementary industry category in thelatest sub-periods. The consumers which do not belong to any of thesecircles form outermost circle 906, and represent the customers leastlikely to respond to the merchant offer to use the low demand/lowturnover period.

Additional factors may be included in the concentric circle formations.For example, response rates from any previous offers may be included. Inthis example, the algorithm may use scores from econometric models whichscore all consumers based on responses from earlier targeted offers as aranking variable. The algorithm may also allow flexibility in choosingthe most important factor deciding the innermost concentric circles.

Similar results to the concentric circles algorithm may be achievedusing a simple weighted scoring mechanism where the amount, number oftransactions, period of transactions, profitability, and physicaldistance from the merchant are given weights, and a score is calculatedfor each of the consumers in the consumer list. When this weightedscoring method is used, only the score is used for sorting and rankingthe consumers. However, it is found that many merchants prefer theconcentric circles grouping because it is more simple and intuitive tounderstand without involving mathematics. Additionally, the concentriccircles model assists visual thinking and allows direct interaction withactual consumer information such as amount spent or physical distancerather than a derived score. The scoring method is more useful whileworking with merchants having multilocation or chain operations with alarge number of locations, who require a more computer intensivemechanism than a visual and intuitive mechanism.

Using the consumer groups identified by the consumer algorithm, themerchant can determine which consumer groups should be targeted. In apractical example of the concentric circles algorithm, a classical musicstore merchant may need to target customers for weekday morninglow-demand periods. In this example, 24 million cardmembers are includedin network 102. Out of those 24 million, only 12 million are activelyspending each month. Within that group, only 6 million buy music. Withinthat group, only 2 million purchase classical music. Within that group,there is a subset of 500,000 who make multiple classical music purchasesin a month. Of that group, only 5,000 cardmembers shop in the same areaas the classical music store. Of that group, only 500 cardmembersregularly shop on weekday mornings. Thus, using the concentric circlesalgorithm, those 500 people most likely to buy classical music in thearea on weekday mornings can be specifically targeted by the merchantwithout wasting marketing efforts on those not likely to buy classicalmusic in the area on weekday mornings.

Once the cardmembers most likely to accept an offer by the merchant havebeen identified, they are targeted with the discount offer from themerchant. The cardmembers' information can be analyzed to determineappropriate channels for communicating the merchant's offer to thetargeted cardmembers. The channel may be based on individual cardmemberpreferences, and may include, for example and without limitation, directmail, email, and telephone calls.

Since the discount offer is targeted to the cardmembers most likely toaccept the offer, a higher rate of acceptance is achieved as compared tobroad-based techniques. Once offers have been accepted, informationabout the cardmembers who accept the offer and their transaction datacan be added to data mart 304 to further enhance the targeting process.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of another example method for targetingcustomers. In step 1102, transaction data, merchant demographic data,and external ratings data are analyzed to classify merchants. Merchantsmay be classified, for example, by capacity utilization patterns.Merchants have different levels of capacity utilization, which may bebased on location, time of day, day of the week, or seasons. In anotherexample, merchants may be classified by the merchant's response to lowdemand. This is also referred to as price elasticity and takes intoconsideration that some merchants reduce prices during low-demandperiods while others tend to maintain prices to protect the brand image.Merchants may also be classified based on how they are rated byindependent critics, geography, and/or the markets served by themerchant.

In step 1104, transaction data is combined with customer demographicdata and, for example, airline data to classify the customers. Customersmay be classified by demand patterns, since customers may havepreferences to shop during specific time slots, on certain days of theweek, or during a particular season. Customers may also be frequentshoppers or non-frequent shoppers. Customers may also be classified bytheir distance from the merchant, and coordinates of the customer andmerchant can be used to calculate the distance. Customers may beclassified based on their travel intent. Airline data, for example, maybe used to identify which customers are traveling where and when.Customers may be classified based on lifestyle, such as whether theyprefer upscale or economy merchants, their age, or how many childrenthey have. Additionally or alternatively, customers may be classifiedbased on their incentive preferences, such as whether the customerresponds to discount incentives or experience incentives.

In step 1106, customers are matched with merchants based on theirpreferences, geography, travel intent, and/or demand/capacity patterns.

In step 1108, a size of spending model is applied to determine how muchspend potential the customer has. Customers having the lowest spendpotential are eliminated from the inventory turnover targeting program.An example spending model that may be used in conjunction with thepresent invention is discussed in U.S. Pat. Appln. Ser. No. 10/978,298,filed Oct. 29, 2004, and titled “Method and Apparatus for Estimating theSpend Capacity of Consumers,” which is incorporated by reference hereinin its entirety.

In step 1110, a spend contact model is applied to determine customerswhose spend declines in response to solicitation. These customers arealso eliminated from the inventory turnover targeting program.

In step 1112, merchants and customers are grouped based on complementarydemand/capacity patterns, customer lifestyle, merchantratings/characteristics, and/or geographic proximity (e.g., the customeris either living or will be traveling to a location close to themerchant during the promotion period). Based on the incentivepreferences of the customer, multiple levels of incentive may be testedusing test and learn methodology. The merchant-specific test is thenfielded.

In step 1114, based on the test results, the most successfulcombinations are selected that meet financial hurdles for both themerchant and a financial company controlling the closed loop network.The final discount offer program is based on these combinations toenhance return on investment for the merchant and provide discountedprice and/or a preferred experience to the consumer.

This type of customer targeting offers a powerful marketing tool thatcan be used in many permutations. For instance, the method can bealtered to include data from complementary merchants. In an examplecomplementary merchant scenario, most customers book airline flightsseveral weeks in advance. The airline flight information can be used todetermine a particular area that the customer may be visiting. Based onother transaction data related to the customer's transaction account, itmay be determined that the customer likes to eat at a particular type ofrestaurant. The customer can then be targeted by a restaurant of thepreferred type at the location to which the customer is flying who maybe experiencing a low-demand period at the time of the customer's visit.

Customer targeting need not be restricted to complementary industrytargeting. If there is high demand for a particular product or serviceproduced by one company, and low demand for a product or service ofsimilar quality in a similar location by a second company, customers maybe offered a discount for purchases made from the second company. Thecustomers benefit, because they are given the option of purchasing asimilar item from an alternative company that the customers may not havebeen aware of The second company also benefits because, even with thediscount, the second company reduces its excess inventory.

Recommendations may also be made based primarily on consumer transactioninformation. A customer may make a purchase from a particular merchant.Data mart 304 may then be searched to determine other customers who alsomade a purchase from the same merchant. Once these additional customersare identified, their transaction data can be analyzed to determine aset of merchants most often used by those additional customers. Theoriginal customer may then be targeted by the set of merchants. Forexample, if a customer makes a purchase at a particular restaurant,other customers who made purchases at the same restaurant areidentified. The most popular restaurants in the same location that theoriginal customer might enjoy can be ranked based on the additionalcustomer transaction information. The original customer can then betargeted with offers from those additional restaurants.

III. Restaurant Yield Management Portal

Further applications to the system described above can be in the area offood and hospitality industry. Specifically, the system described can beused to improve the yield of a restaurant or a hotel that wishes to getrid of its immediately perishable inventory, e.g., tables in the case ofa restaurant and rooms in the case of a hotel. According to oneembodiment of the present invention, described below is an exemplaryrestaurant yield management portal with the aim to generate incrementalbusiness for a restaurant or a hotel. It is to be noted that althoughthis portal is being described in terms of a restaurant, it can also beapplicable to any other business entity that has a need to get rid ofits perishable inventory items. The case of a restaurant is used as anexample only, and not as a limitation.

1. Introduction

A fundamental problem for any business dealing with perishable inventoryhas been to maximize, in a substantially short period of time, the salesassociated with such perishable inventory. Past methods to deal withthis problem include untargeted discounting and special customer perks.However, none of the past methods have tried to solve the problem in adiscrete manner, so as not to affect the consumption and purchaseexperience for the customer exercising the offer. It is also importantthat any method or system attempting to solve this problem does so in asnon-disruptive a way as possible, such as through reservations andcouponless discounting. That is, the system or method in use should letthe customers and merchants interact and conduct business as usual.Additionally, a method or system should make available simple,self-service targeted marketing methods and provide access to “push”channels such as, for example and without limitation, email and textmessaging channels. Further, the system or method should allow dynamicsubmission of inventory by a Service Establishment (SE).

The restaurant yield management portal is a system and a method toenable merchants to generate incremental inventory sales. Merchants willprovide the details of an inventory that is “at risk” to a transactioncard company to be marketed to its cardmembers at a discounted price viathe web, email, Short Messaging Service (SMS), a telephone call or anyother form of communication known to persons having skill in the art. Ifthe cardmember (“CM”) decides to avail the offer of a discount, the CMmakes a reservation with the card company, dines at the restaurant, andpays for the meal using a card associated with the card company. Thediscount is then automatically applied, after a sale, to the CM'saccount via a statement of credit.

Similar to the methods described with respect to targeted marketing ofproducts, CM preferences are collected upon enrollment to matchavailable offers with the most relevant program enrollees (as will bedescribed below with respect to FIG. 21). Periodic communications arethen sent to these program enrollees containing offers that match theirpreferences.

It is common practice for businesses wishing to clear their inventory tosend generalized coupons for various products by mail or emails. Thosecoupons can then be redeemed by the consumer by physically taking thecoupon to the stores and getting a rebate. This process adds additionalsteps on the part of the merchant like printing and mailing the coupons,and tracking and accounting for coupon usage after the sale. It alsodoes not take into account user preferences. Most importantly, thissystem will fail if the merchant wants to clear the inventory in a timeframe that is substantially close to current time, say within 24 hours.

The current invention seeks to minimize such losses occurring due toun-used perishable inventory that could not have otherwise been sold ina very short duration of time. It should be noted that although thisinvention is useful for short-term sale of perishable inventory, it isequally applicable to sale of regular and long-term non-perishableinventory too.

Thus, a real time targeted marketing method through various channelsbased on customer defined preferences is provided. The system providesfor couponless fulfillment of offers, at the same time letting customersand merchants conduct business as usual. The merchants can sell“at-risk” inventory both far in advance and at the last minute and thecustomers benefit from savings on products/services and also get to knownew merchants which they otherwise would not have encountered. Merchantscan also track and understand how well a particular sales strategy isworking for them.

2. Acronyms Used in Drawings and Specification

-   BAU—Business As Usual-   CAP—Collection or group of Service Establishments (Merchants) under    common ownership-   CM—Card Member-   FINCAP—Financial Capture System-   IVR—Interactive Voice Response-   MTC—Merchant Teleservicing Channel-   GUI—Graphical User Interface-   OMS—Online Merchant Services-   UID—User ID-   PW—Password-   ROC—Record of Charge-   SE—Service Establishment (Merchant)-   SMS—Short Messaging Services (text messaging)-   SSO—Single Sign on-   WAP—Wireless Application Protocol-   RSS—Really Simple Syndication (an online publishing technology)

3. Concept Overview

FIG. 13 illustrates an overview of an example restaurant yieldmanagement portal by means of a flowchart 1300. Flowchart 1300 shows theinteraction between three participating entities—a merchant 1302, a cardcompany 1304 and a CM 1306. Communication between merchant 1302 and CM1306 occurs via card company 1304 by means of, for example and withoutlimitation, a website, an email, a text message, RSS (an XML-basedformat for content distribution), WAP, etc., as is also shown inflowchart 1300.

In step 1308 of flowchart 1300, merchant 1302 identifies periods of lowdemand based on the merchant information from network 102 of FIG. 1 andcreates deals to entice card members to a sale at different times morethan once.

In step 1310, card company 1304 markets the submitted inventory to CM1306 (or to many such CMs like CM 1306) based upon a matching ofsubmitted preferences of enrollees and/or in-program transactionalhistory with the offer inventory from merchant 1302. The marketing maybe “pull marketing,” in which CM 1306 can voluntarily review (or pullout) available inventory uploaded on card company 1304's website bymerchant 1302. Alternatively, the marketing may be “push marketing,” inwhich card company 1304 can send (or push out) targeted communication toany relevant CM 1306 based on preferences or in-program transactionhistory. An example method 2100 of matching preferences is furtherillustrated in FIG. 21.

Method 2100 begins with step 2102, in which CM preferences aredetermined. CM preferences may include basic preferences, which includethe minimum information required to promote relevant offers and fulfillcouponless offers. Basic preferences may include, for example andwithout limitation, authentication information (e.g., user name andpassword), the CM's name, the CM's email address, the CM's credit cardnumber, the CM's preferred cuisines and geography, and the minimum partysize for the CM.

CM preferences may also include push marketing preferences, whichidentify the manner in which the customer wishes to receive informationabout the offer. Push marketing preferences may differ depending onwhether the channel is a periodic newsletter (e.g., digest) summarizingoffers that meet the CM-defined search criteria or whether the channelis a “Flash” alert triggered by specific inventory upload and sent outimmediately prior to the event. A “Flash” alert generally refers to anoffer created instantaneously in very recent time and is pushed outmainly via a text message. Periodic newsletter preferences may include,for example and without limitation, the minimum number of days ofadvance notice required by the CM, the minimum quality rating (e.g.,Zagat rating or Gayot rating), preferred geographies and cuisines, andthe frequency with which the CM wishes to be contacted with the periodicnewsletter. “Flash” alert preferences may include, for example andwithout limitation, preferred contact channels, the CM's contactdetails, available times for the CM, preferred target restaurants, andpreferred target meals. All this information may be saved in a CMpreferences database 2103.

Additionally, in-program transaction history of the CM may be analyzedto determine CM preferences.

In step 2104, a merchant 1302, such as a restaurant, submits inventorydetails to the reservations portal. The details may be submitted, forexample, via a password-protected website or a toll-free telephonenumber with various options. Such a submission typically occurs on aregular basis once merchant 1302 is enrolled for participation with thereservation portal.

When merchant 1302 is first enrolled, merchant 1302 submits merchantprofile information that can be used for preference matching andfinancial settlement. The information specific to merchant 1302 mayinclude, for example and without limitation, restaurant authenticationinformation, the merchant's name, the merchant's SE number, themerchant's address, contact information for the merchant, the address ofthe merchant's website, hours of operation of the merchant, adescriptive profile of the merchant, the merchant's geography, and themerchant's cuisine and type of dining. This information may be stored ina SE profile database 2105. The SE profile database may also includethird party information, such as a rating and/or review of the merchant,the merchant's price point, or a map of the merchant's location.

After merchant 1302 has been enrolled with the reservations portal, theinventory submissions from step 2104 for dining inventory to be marketedexclusively by card company 1304 are made periodically. The periodicsubmissions may include, for example and without limitation, a dateand/or time an offer may be redeemed, a location at which the offer maybe redeemed, and a table size for the offer. Such information may bestored in a dining inventory database 2107. Merchant 1302 may also offercard members incentives through various schemes.

Once the CM preferences are received in step 2102 and the merchantinventory is received in step 2104, method 2100 proceeds to step 2106.In step 2106, potential offers are rank ordered and scored based on theCM preferences. Step 2106 takes into consideration two types ofpreferences, absolute preferences and ranking preferences. Absolutepreferences are those preferences that can be used to screen outundesirable inventory, such as the date of a reservation and a locationof the restaurant. For example, if the CM lives in New York, the CMwould not be able to avail offers for restaurants in San Francisco, andthose offers can be completely removed from the list of availableoffers.

Ranking preferences are those preferences that can be applied to scoreand identify the most relevant inventory. Ranking preferences include,for example, a preferred cuisine type, a preferred time of reservation,and a preferred restaurant rating. The CM preferences are applied topotentially available offers, which are then scored and ranked in orderof likely relevance. For example, if preferences indicate that a CMenjoys Italian cuisine, an offer for an Italian restaurant will beranked higher than an offer for a French restaurant, but the offer forthe French restaurant is not completely removed from the list ofavailable offers.

In step 2108, a prioritized offer list is created. The prioritized offerlist is provided to the CM in step 2110. Based upon a capacity of thechannel (e.g., a website can display many offers, an email may displayfewer offers, a text message can display even fewer offers), the numberof offers may vary for a given channel, with the capacity being filledwith the highest-ranking offers in the prioritized offer list.

Through method 2100, merchants (such as restaurants or hotels, or anyother business that wants to avail this system) are thus enabled to sellinventory discretely through targeted communication instead of broadcastadvertising.

Returning to FIG. 13, in step 1312, CM 1306 can opt into general serviceprograms and then accept specific offers marketed by merchant 1302,according to his or her preferences.

In step 1314, CM 1306 then makes a reservation with merchant 1302. Thereservation can be made, for example, through direct access via anonline reservation capability at card company 1304's website, or byclicking, for example, a hyperlink that takes CM 1306 to card company1304's online reservation website in an email message, or by replyingback to a text message. Card company 1304 then notifies merchant 1302 ofthe reservation by, for example, phone, email, fax or its website.

In step 1316, CM 1306 dines at merchant 1302 and pays a full price ofthe meal at the time of sale using a card issued to CM 1306 by cardcompany 1304. Following this, in step 1318, CM 1306 receives a financialincentive in the form of a discount via either a direct couponlessstatement credit on his or her statement corresponding to the cardaccount or a deposit of rewards points to a rewards program accountassociated with the card. An advantage of the couponless transaction isthat CM 1306 does not have to physically present any coupons atparticipating merchant 1302 to fulfill the discount. Instead, CM 1306can avail a reservation just like any other CM who is not enrolled insuch a scheme and pay a full price at the time of sale. Besides beingcredited for a discount in his or her statement, another exemplaryfinancial incentive to CM 1306 statement is the benefit of an offer fora discount at a very short notice to a selected group of CMs like CM1306. In such a situation, only those CMs who are actively searching forperishable inventory or signal via their preferences or in-programtransaction history that they may be interested in an offer and who arequick enough to avail the offer will receive statement credit for thepurchase.

Based on steps 1316 and 1318, in step 1320, card company 1304 receives acommission from merchant 1302 on any such incremental transaction (orsale).

FIG. 14 shows a block diagram of an example restaurant yield managementportal 1400. Portal 1400 has mainly three components—a merchantcomponent 1402, a card company component 1404 and a customer component1406. Merchant component 1402 has a merchant inventorysubmission/maintenance system 1408. System 1408 includes a web-basedinterface or an IVR system. System 1408 interacts with an inventoryallocation engine 1416 designed to match preferences related to any CM1306 of FIG. 13. System 1408 also interacts with a card companycomponent 1404 via merchant/customer enrollment campaign system 1410.System 1410 handles enrollment campaigns for merchants and customers toenroll in the services. Card company component 1404 also has a callcenter 1412 designed to handle calls to merchant component 1402 tonotify SEs of a sold reservation, confirm any reservations or bookingsmade through customer component 1406, or for any general assistancepurposes.

System 1410 is basically a campaigning mechanism for increasing customermembership and for directing existing and potential customers to website1418. Inventory allocation engine 1416 provides output to website 1418.The output of inventory allocation engine 1416 is also used to providecontent for email 1420 or SMS 1422 to a CM 1306. Retired or deleteditems in the current inventory updated by system 1408 may not bedisplayed on program website 1418 or marketed via email platform 1420 orSMS platform 1422.

At a high level, merchant 1302 gives card company 1304 an offer tomarket. Card company 1304 takes that offer, applies preferences usingengine 1416, and markets the offer to CMs 1306 who most likely wouldwant the offer via platforms 1418, 1420 and 1422. A CM 1306 accessesprogram website 1418, reviews available offers, and makes a specificreservation. That reservation is then taken out of card company 1304'sinventory database. At the same time, when that reservation is madethrough website 1418, an email is triggered to call center 1412. Callcenter 1412 then contacts merchant 1302 to notify merchant 1302 that anoffer having a certain discount amount has been accepted.

Additionally, for all transactions occurring between merchant component1402 and customer component 1406, there is a transaction matchingfacility 1424 to provide couponless discounting and to drive themerchant and CM systems. Matching is done on a periodic basis.

FIG. 15 describes the elements of example portal 1400 in more details.As shown in the detailed block diagram 1500, merchant component 1402contains a SE (merchant) self-enrollment system 1502 and an accountdetail system 1504. SE self-enrollment system 1502 allows merchant 1302to, for example, accept terms and conditions of the portal, set up anaccount with the portal, and build a SE profile. Account detail system1504 provides, among other things, an authentication method, a method tosubmit inventory and an account management system. An SE statementingand reporting system 1506 receives data from card company component 1404and provides it to merchant component 1402.

Card company component 1404 includes an SE marketing system 1508 and aCM marketing system 1510. SE marketing system 1508 is used to raisegeneral awareness for the portal among merchants, as well as to directlysolicit and enroll specific merchants 1302. Similarly, CM marketingsystem 1510 is used to raise general awareness for the portal amongcustomers, as well as to directly solicit and enroll specific CMs 1306.

Inventory allocation engine 1416 in card company component 1404 furtherreceives data from a CM preferences database 1514 and an inventorywarehouse 1516 to store any patterns or preferences related to CM 1306.Data in the inventory allocation engine 1416 can be used by an outboundmarketing module 1518, which sends offers to CM 1306 through customercomponent 1406. In return, there is an inbound booking module 1520 whichcommunicates with an inventory warehouse 1516. Inventory warehouse 1516is used to store any bookings made through customer component 1406 alongwith unhooked offers submitted by merchant component 1402. Inboundbooking module 1520 also communicates with call center 1412, to notifyan SE of a sold reservation. For example, booking module 1520 can sendan email to call center 1412. In addition to reservation notification1550, merchant component 1402 can include a backup/secondarynotification module, such as a module that generates an email or faxnumbered notification of inventory that has been reserved by customer1406.

Card company component 1404 has a registered card platform 1522delivering couponless offers to eligible CMs transacting at eligible SEsat eligible times or days. Registered card platform 1522 may include,among other things, a CM log and an SE transaction log for tracking orchecking various transactions. Data from registered card platform 1522is used to create cardmember statement credits 1526.

Customer component 1406 has a self enrollment module 1528, which allowsCM 1306 to accept terms and conditions of the portal, register a cardassociated with card company 1304, and enter CM preferences. Customercomponent 1406 also includes an authentication module 1530 forauthenticating CM 1306. After being authenticated, CM 1306 can log in toa website 1540. Website 1540 may contain offers for which CM 1306 canmake a reservation 1552. Reservation 1552 can be provided to cardcompany component 1404 through booking module 1520. The customer mayalso enroll in “push” marketing via enrollment module 1536. Such pushmarketing can be communicated through an SMS module 1534 or an emailmodule 1538. Offer type 1548 provided through customer component 1406may include, for example, a by-request message (where a CM requests thatan offer be provided to him or her based upon pre-existing short-codeswhich correspond to, for example, a desired geography or a meal type), adaily digest message (e.g., newsletter), or a “Flash” email alert. CM1306 can respond to SMS marketing via a short code reply 1554, whichtriggers a reservation through booking module 1520. Details of exampledaily digest and “Flash” email alert are provided below.

3.1 EXAMPLE 1 Newsletter

The newsletter is a customized periodic email summary (i.e., digest) ofinventory availability that matches CM-specified preferences as perinformation stored in CM preferences database 1514. Through newsletters,CMs can receive customized emails. A pre-determined or customized numberof emails can be sent to each CM per day outlining restaurants thatmatch search criteria set by CM 1306 for up to any time in the nearfuture (e.g. next 5 days). The number of emails can be capped (viabusiness rules) so that no specific restaurant can appear more than afixed number of times per day in such emails to CM 1306. After receivingsuch an email, CM 1306 may follow a hyperlink, choose to see additionaldetails online through program website 1418, and make a reservation.Additionally, if CM 1306 has enrolled to receive newsletters but has notyet created customized alerts, default alerts based on information frompreferences database 1514 can be sent out.

An exemplary scenario may let CM 1306 fix the time of the day when he orshe receives such emails. CM 1306 can fix the size of the party (i.e.,number of people accompanying him or her) for the reservation. Thedigest can further be customized based on a particular cuisine orgeographical area that CM 1306 chooses to dine in. If there is a tiebetween various restaurants for a particular search criteria entered byCM 1306, CM 1306 can decide on further criteria to eliminate the tie. Asample newsletter is shown in FIG. 20A.

3.2 EXAMPLE 2 “Flash” Alerts

“Flash” alerts are single offer messages delivered via communicationschemes, such as, for example and not limited to, text message or emailto a limited number of enrollee CMs. To obtain a benefit from “Flash”alerts, CM 1306 can select specific restaurants that he or she wishes tobe alerted on if those restaurants have availability. As in the case ofdaily digests, CM 1306 can pre-program the maximum number of “Flash”alerts he or she receives. Restaurant 1302 can use “Flash” alerts as anopportunity to proactively push out scarce inventory in a shorttimeframe. Generally, the time duration for which a “Flash” alert isvalid is less than that for offers posted in a daily digest. However,the invention is equally valid for any longer time duration for which a“Flash” alert might be sent.

According to one embodiment of the invention, not all eligible CMs maybe sent “Flash” alerts due to limited availability of the inventory. Forexample, out of 90 eligible recipient CMs, only 60 CMs may be contactedfor a particular “Flash” alert and the remaining 30 eligible CMs mightnot be contacted. Such a differentiation may be done, for example andwithout limitation, on the basis of a preference-matching algorithmusing, for example and without limitation, cuisine, location, time ofday, table size, and how frequently the customer uses the system.Further, in an exemplary embodiment, out of the 60 selected eligibleCMs, a part of them may be contacted via email, SMS or any othercombination of communication modes, depending upon individualcommunication preferences as is well known to one skilled in the art. Asample “Flash” alert is illustrated in FIG. 20B.

Other manifestations of the example portal 1400 will be apparent to oneskilled in the art, after reading this specification.

The various functionalities of portal 1400 can be implemented on awebsite, as will be apparent to one skilled in the art. Such a websitecan contain, among other features, for merchant component 1402:

-   1. A merchant landing page;-   2. A demo for the complete process in a popular tool, for example,    “Flash” by Adobe Systems, Inc. of San Jose, Calif.;-   3. A way to contact a website administrator;-   4. A secure access to enrollment, password recovery, updating and    deletion of records, management of individual accounts, management    of inventory information, ability to track the movement of various    transactions, authentication (e.g., user ID and password), and    reporting on booked and/or unsold offers.

Similarly for customer component 1406, such a website can contain, amongother things:

-   1. A CM landing page;-   2. An ability to search for real time offers made by the merchant    side 1402;-   3. Facilities for enrollment, password recovery, authenticating,    reviewing available offers, matching user preferences, providing a    history of transactions, and for modifying any search related to the    offers made by the merchant side 1402.

An administrator of an example yield management portal may beresponsible for various actions involving portal 1400. For example, theadministrator may be able to perform all functions that merchantcomponent 1402 and customer component 1406 can perform including but notlimited to: updating inventory on behalf of merchants, viewing merchantreports, and making reservations on behalf of CMs, changing inventorydetails at any time, creating CM and merchant email lists based onprofile and usage criteria (e.g. tables, last active date, etc.), writeand send email marketing messages to targeted audience (email list couldcontain one or more recipients), review, modify, and approve merchantenrollment information, assign pricing tables and verify that themerchant is indeed a restaurant merchant eligible to participate in theprogram (merchant account may not be activated until enrollment isapproved). Merchants may have the ability to upload one or more pricingtables with discount and spread amounts and/or fees that can vary by dayof the week, time of the day, cumulative tables loaded/quarter, andmerchant tenure in program.

The administrator can also designate merchants to appear in a “FeaturedInventory” list or have premium placement in CM search results. Theadministrator can access reporting including, but not limited to: CM andmerchant usage statistics, reservations, top restaurants (viewed andreserved), top offers (viewed and reserved), push campaign results, andCM characteristics summary. Other roles and functions of theadministrator can be understood easily by one skilled in the art.

4. Inventory Upload Process Flow

FIG. 16 illustrates an example method 1600 showing the details of how amerchant 1302 of FIG. 13 can upload the details of its inventory to awebsite. In step 1602, merchant 1302 reviews bookings and determinesinventory (e.g., a number of available tables for an offer or incentive)to load to an exemplary restaurant yield management portal. This can bedone in multiple ways. When the portal is accessed via a website, forexample, merchant 1302 is authenticated via the website in step 1604.Merchant 1302 then enters inventory and/or incentives onto the websitein step 1606. Method 1600 then proceeds to step 1608.

Alternatively, if the portal is accessed via telephone, merchant 1302 isauthenticated via telephone in step 1612. In step 1614, the inventoryand/or incentive is submitted to the portal over the telephone. Method1600 then proceeds to step 1608.

In step 1608, the inventory is added to an inventory database of cardcompany 1304. If a customer service representative is used, theinventory is manually entered into the system. If an IVR or website isused, the portal autopopulates the inventory into the inventorydatabase.

In step 1610, merchant 1302 receives a notification (e.g., an “FYI”email) once the inventory is entered. The inventory may also be seen bya CM 1306 on the reservation portal website.

Certain restrictions may apply to offers listed in the portal. Forexample, for a given period of time prior to an available reservation,merchant 1302 may be unable to make changes to previously uploadedinventory. At a given time prior to the available reservation, inventorymay begin to be marketed to CM 1306 via, for example, program website1540, email 1538, or text messaging 1534 of FIG. 15.

Additionally at a given time prior to the available reservation,available reservations may cease to be active and may not accessible byCM 1306.

5. Reservation Process Flow

FIG. 17 illustrates an example process 1700 for a reservation made by CM1306. A customer is first notified of an offer via, for example, website1702, email 1704, or text message 1706. If email 1704 is used fornotification, email 1704 may include a link to drive the customer towebsite 1702. Website 1702 includes additional offer information, and a“reserve now” link 1707. Similarly, text message 1706 also provides a“reserve now” option 1709 in which CM 1306 replies with an appropriateSMS short code to trigger a reservation.

A backend system 1708 ensures that the communication from CM 1306 isappropriately handled. Backend system 1708 may include, among otherthings, an inventory warehouse 1712, a reservation log 1714, and a CMmessaging system 1716.

Backend system 1708 also contacts the merchant regarding acceptedoffers/reservations via a merchant messaging system 1718.

If an email is received by CM 1306, a hyperlink will be included in theemail message for sending a response. CM 1306 clicks on the hyperlink togo to a program website where he or she can make a reservation. For atext message, CM 1306 replies via a short code indicating that they wishto avail the offer and make a reservation. If the offer is stillavailable, the table is reserved, inventory warehouse 1712 andreservation log 1714 are updated, and a reply is sent back to the CM1306. If the offer is not still available, an alternative offer is sentvia another text message.

FIG. 18 illustrates the process of couponless offer fulfillment by CM1306 and merchant 1302. In step 1802, CM 1306 enrolls in an examplerestaurant yield management portal. A registered identification numberis usually allotted to every such CM 1306 whose enrollment is approvedby card company 1304. Post approval of CM 1306, card company 1304 linksall products issued by card company 1304 to CM 1306 in step 1804. Basedon the enrollment in step 1802 and the linking in step 1804, cardcompany 1304 creates an enrollee roster in step 1806 containing alleligible card members by enrolled card members.

In step 1808, merchant 1302 creates and submits offers for CM 1306. Instep 1810, card company 1304 uses these offers to compile an offerroster. The offer roster is a list of all open offers at a given time.

In step 1812, CM 1306 accepts an offer and makes a reservation. In step1814, card company 1304 creates a reservation log. The reservation logis a cumulative list of reservations that are live at a given time. Thelog may be made by CM 1306 but might not yet be transacted.

Meanwhile, in step 1816, merchant 1302 continues a BAU submission of alltransaction information, by means of a BAU transaction file, to cardcompany 1304, via various communication channels well known to oneskilled in the art.

In step 1818, card company 1304 sorts the BAU transaction file submittedfor transaction information to identify transactions by programenrollees at eligible restaurants at eligible times where a reservationhas also been made matches the enrollee roster and the offer roster

In step 1820, an output file is created based on the transaction andeligibility matching and comparing performed in step 1818. The outputfile contains, among other entries, CM 1306's identification number, thetransaction amount, date of the transaction, merchant 1302 at which thetransaction occurred and an offer identification number. This candetermine the credit to be provided to CM 1306, as well as the charge tomerchant 1302.

The output file is described in more detail in FIG. 19, whichillustrates an example output file 1900. Debits (to merchant 1302), pluscredits and sales commissions are offset in any transaction between CM1306 and merchant 1302. Consider, for example, the case of merchant 1302“A”. CM 1306 avails a discount offer made by merchant 1302. Merchant1302 debits CM 1306 an amount of $380.00, shown in box 1901 at the timeof sale. However, CM 1306 receives, in his or her periodic statement, acredit of $76.00 (or the equivalent of value in terms of loyalty points)as shown in box 1908. As a result, the net amount paid by CM 1306 is$304.00 only. If the commission paid by merchant 1302 to card company1304 is $38.00 (i.e., 10%) as shown in box 1902, the total amount bywhich the card company 1304's payment to the merchant is reduced (orinvoiced) is $114.00, as shown in box 1906. Alternatively, an invoicefor $114.00 can also be sent to the merchant. This procedure takes placefor all such merchants 1302 and for all CMs 1306, as shown by an oval1904. In this way, a couponless credit system is carried out between CM1306 and merchant 1302 via card company 1304. These incentives andcommissions may vary by merchant and customer.

Similar to the process of reservations, a cancellation process can alsobe implemented, according to various embodiments of the inventiondescribed herein.

6. Advantages of The Restaurant Yield Management Portal

Apart from the functionality details of the exemplary restaurant yieldmanagement portal that have been described above, one skilled in the artcan understand the benefits of such a system and its flexibilityfeatures. Some of these advantages have been described below, as anexample and not as a limitation. One skilled in the art can furthermodify and gain more advantages by using a combination of featuresdescribed, in this section and elsewhere, according to variousembodiments of the present invention.

The restaurant yield management portal serves as a real time targetedmarketing platform providing both the merchant's and the CM's ability tosell and purchase perishable and non-perishable inventory in a real timeenvironment on a periodic basis. The term “periodic” encapsulates anytime duration having regularity or a period including hourly, daily,weekly, monthly or quarterly periods, depending upon the specificembodiment in which the invention is being used. Unlike many priorattempts for targeted marketing by means of providing financialincentive to the CM, the restaurant yield management portal provides afriendly GUI for the merchant component as well as the consumercomponent. By means of its friendly GUI, the restaurant yield managementportal provides an easy-to-use online booking facility in addition toseparate web, email, text message, RSS and WAP platforms for the sale ofimmediately available or immediately perishable inventory.

In an exemplary scenario, a merchant might know about consumer purchasebehavior to show a low demand trend for a particular day of the weekbeforehand, say three days in advance. By means of the restaurant yieldmanagement portal, the merchant can notify a set of registered CMs aboutpotential discounts associated with such low demand (or off-peak)inventory which would have otherwise gone un-consumed. In this scenario,a winning situation for a merchant would be to have the off-peakinventory sold to a CM who would, in a normal scenario, have consumed itduring high demand period but due to an incentive decides to dine at anoff-peak period instead. For example, if a restaurant owner knows thatthere will be heavy reservations on a Thursday night but very lowreservations on a Wednesday night, he or she can market an incentive toentice a CM to dine on that Wednesday night to a CM who doesn't careabout which night he dines outside. The restaurant owner can, via therestaurant yield management portal, give discount offers to that CMwhich can be credited during the monthly statement that the CM wouldreceive from his card company, thereby resulting in a couponlessdiscount offer. According to one embodiment of the invention, such acouponless rebate system is also helpful to the merchants to avoidhaving to train new staff and in easing logistics issues therebyresulting in cost savings.

According to one embodiment of the invention, a merchant can employ apush mechanism of marketing perishable inventory by which specific CMscan be sent information about specific perishables by means of explicitdata analysis. This is different from systems that sell perishableinventory by basing their marketing strategies on an inferential model.For example, in an inferential model, if a CM buys a product X, then itis inferred that he or she might be interested in buying products Y andZ too from the same family of products as X. Accordingly, informationregarding Y and Z is sent to the CM. In contrast, using restaurant yieldmanagement portal a CM explicitly states his or her preferences. Forexample, in case of a restaurant, the CM may specify favorite cuisinesin an order and solicit information about any restaurants offering dealson those cuisines. Therefore, restaurant yield management portalprovides a more accurate method of customer characterization thanprevious systems, though restaurant yield management portal may, too,use an inferential model to supplement the matching via explicitpreferences.

According to yet another embodiment of the invention, restaurant yieldmanagement portal facilitates a dynamic inventory submission andaccumulation mechanism that lists very limited time offers for aspecific class of perishable inventory; however, offers can be made veryspecific or very general and anything in between depending upon amerchant's discretion. By coupling a real-time submission mechanism with“push” marketing via web, email or text message, the merchant can reachenrollees within a short period of time.

According to another embodiment of the current invention, the CM cansign up for enrollment to the discounts program in the restaurant yieldmanagement portal by signing up on a website corresponding to therestaurant yield management portal or the card member can refer a friendto sign up to receive discounts.

Such systems and methods may be utilized by a financial company, such asa transaction card provider, who operates a network such as network 102.These systems and methods (or any part(s) or function(s) thereof) may beimplemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof, and maybe implemented in one or more computer systems or other processingsystems. However, the manipulations performed by the methods and systemsdisclosed herein were often referred to in terms, such as adding orcomparing, which are commonly associated with mental operationsperformed by a human operator. No such capability of a human operator isnecessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of the operationsdescribed herein which form part of the present invention. Rather, theoperations may be machine operations. Useful machines for performing theoperation of the present invention include general purpose digitalcomputers or similar devices.

In fact, in one embodiment, the invention is directed toward one or morecomputer systems capable of carrying out the functionality describedherein. An example of a computer system 1200 is shown in FIG. 12.

The computer system 1200 includes one or more processors, such asprocessor 1204. The processor 1204 is connected to a communicationinfrastructure 1206 (e.g., a communications bus, cross-over bar, ornetwork). Various software embodiments are described in terms of thisexemplary computer system. After reading this description, it willbecome apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art(s) how toimplement the invention using other computer systems and/orarchitectures.

Computer system 1200 can include a display interface 1202 that forwardsgraphics, text, and other data from the communication infrastructure1206 (or from a frame buffer not shown) for display on the display unit1230.

Computer system 1200 also includes a main memory 1208, preferably randomaccess memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory 1210. Thesecondary memory 1210 may include, for example, a hard disk drive 1212and/or a removable storage drive 1214, representing a floppy disk drive,a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, etc. The removable storagedrive 1214 reads from and/or writes to a removable storage unit 1218 ina well known manner. Removable storage unit 1218 represents a floppydisk, magnetic tape, optical disk, etc. which is read by and written toby removable storage drive 1214. As will be appreciated, the removablestorage unit 1218 includes a computer usable storage medium havingstored therein computer software and/or data.

In alternative embodiments, secondary memory 1210 may include othersimilar devices for allowing computer programs or other instructions tobe loaded into computer system 1200. Such devices may include, forexample, a removable storage unit 1218 and an interface 1220. Examplesof such may include a program cartridge and cartridge interface (such asthat found in video game devices), a removable memory chip (such as anerasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), or programmable readonly memory (PROM)) and associated socket, and other removable storageunits 1218 and interfaces 1220, which allow software and data to betransferred from the removable storage unit 1218 to computer system1200.

Computer system 1200 may also include a communications interface 1224.Communications interface 1224 allows software and data to be transferredbetween computer system 1200 and external devices. Examples ofcommunications interface 1224 may include a modem, a network interface(such as an Ethernet card), a communications port, a Personal ComputerMemory Card International Association (PCMCIA) slot and card, etc.Software and data transferred via communications interface 1224 may bein the form of signals 1228 which may be electronic, electromagnetic,optical or other signals capable of being received by communicationsinterface 1224. These signals 1228 are provided to communicationsinterface 1224 via a communications path (e.g., channel) 1226. Thischannel 1226 carries signals 1228 and may be implemented using wire orcable, fiber optics, a telephone line, a cellular link, an radiofrequency (RF) link and other communications channels.

In this document, the terms “computer program medium” and “computerusable medium” are used to generally refer to media such as removablestorage drive 1214, a hard disk installed in hard disk drive 1212, andsignals 1228. These computer program products provide software tocomputer system 1200. The invention is directed to such computer programproducts.

Computer programs (also referred to as computer control logic) arestored in main memory 1208 and/or secondary memory 1210. Computerprograms may also be received via communications interface 1224. Suchcomputer programs, when executed, enable the computer system 1200 toperform the features of the present invention, as discussed herein. Inparticular, the computer programs, when executed, enable the processor1204 to perform the features of the present invention. Accordingly, suchcomputer programs represent controllers of the computer system 1200.

In an embodiment where the invention is implemented using software, thesoftware may be stored in a computer program product and loaded intocomputer system 1200 using removable storage drive 1214, hard drive 1212or communications interface 1224. The control logic (software), whenexecuted by the processor 1204, causes the processor 1204 to perform thefunctions of the invention as described herein.

In another embodiment, the invention is implemented primarily inhardware using, for example, hardware components such as applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs). Implementation of the hardwarestate machine so as to perform the functions described herein will beapparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s).

In yet another embodiment, the invention is implemented using acombination of both hardware and software.

III. Conclusion

While various embodiments of the present invention have been describedabove, it should be understood that they have been presented by way ofexample, and not limitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled inthe relevant art(s) that various changes in form and detail can be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. Thus, the present invention should not be limited by any ofthe above described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only inaccordance with the following claims and their equivalents.

In addition, it should be understood that the figures and screen shotsillustrated in the attachments, which highlight the functionality andadvantages of the present invention, are presented for example purposesonly. The architecture of the present invention is sufficiently flexibleand configurable, such that it may be utilized (and navigated) in waysother than that shown in the accompanying figures.

Further, the purpose of the foregoing Abstract is to enable the U.S.Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially thescientists, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiarwith patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from acursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure ofthe application. The Abstract is not intended to be limiting as to thescope of the present invention in any way.

1. A method comprising: applying, by an inventory allocation computingdevice, a first portion of consumer preferences data to informationregarding perishable inventory of a merchant to identify availableinventory information from the perishable inventory information, whereinthe perishable inventory is identified as being within periods of lowdemand; applying, by the computing device, a second portion of theconsumer preferences data to the available inventory information;forming, by the computing device, an available inventory offer list,wherein the available inventory offer list is ranked based on the secondportion of consumer preferences; communicating, by the computing device,the available inventory offer list to a consumer; receiving, by thecomputing device, a reservation made by the consumer for a portion ofthe perishable inventory from the available inventory offer list; andnotifying, by the computing device, the merchant of the reservation. 2.The method of claim 1, further comprising providing details of theperishable inventory to a reservations portal that is accessible by atleast one of the merchant and the consumer.
 3. The method of claim 1,further comprising displaying on a website at least a portion of theavailable inventory offer list for the consumer.
 4. The method of claim1, wherein the consumer preferences data is received from a preferencesdatabase.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving thereservation includes receiving via at least one of real-time, online,text message, Interactive Voice Response and telephone reservation. 6.The method of claim 1, further comprising debiting, by the computingdevice, the consumer for a full price of items associated with thereservation.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising crediting, bythe computing device, the consumer with a difference between a fullprice of items associated with the reservation and a discounted merchantprice.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising crediting, by thecomputing device, the consumer with loyalty points having an equivalentvalue of a difference between a full price of items associated with thereservation and a discounted merchant price.
 9. The method of claim 1,further comprising crediting, by the computing device, the consumer witha value of a merchant incentive.
 10. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising billing the merchant for a value of a merchant incentive plusa sales commission.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprisingbilling the merchant via at least one of a reservations portal, anelectronic mail communication, a telephonic message communication, and apaper statement.
 12. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifyingthe merchant in response to a cancellation of the reservation.
 13. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising updating an availability of theavailable inventory offer list.
 14. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising registering the consumer by linking a transaction accountwith a reservations portal, wherein a transaction account companyhosting the reservations portal receives a commission from the merchantfor every purchase made by the consumer.
 15. The method of claim 1,further comprising authenticating the merchant associated with theperishable inventory.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein the availableinventory offer list includes customized off-peak incentives.
 17. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the reservation made by the consumer is basedon a list of customized off-peak incentives.
 18. The method of claim 1,wherein the reservation made by the consumer is based on a list ofcustomized off-peak incentives, and wherein the off-peak incentives areranked based on the second portion of the consumer preferences.
 19. Themethod of claim 1, wherein a number of offers in the available inventoryoffer list depends on a capacity of a communication channel of theavailable inventory offer list.
 20. The method of claim 1, wherein theperishable inventory includes available tables at restaurants.
 21. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising computing a number ofcommunication messages to be sent to the consumer based on a number ofitems of perishable inventory.
 22. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising providing additional information related to at least one ofratings of the merchant and driving directions to the merchant.
 23. Asystem comprising: an inventory allocation processor, a tangible,non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor, anallocation module configured to communicate with the processor and toapply a first portion of consumer preferences data to informationregarding perishable inventory of a merchant to identify availableinventory information from the perishable inventory information, whereinthe perishable inventory is identified as being within periods of lowdemand; the allocation module further configured to communicate with theprocessor and to apply a second portion of the consumer preferences datato the available inventory information; a list formation moduleconfigured to communicate with the processor and to form an availableinventory offer list, wherein the available inventory offer list isranked based on the second portion of consumer preferences; acommunication module configured to communicate with the processor and tocommunicate the available inventory offer list to a consumer; thecommunication module further configured to receive a reservation made bythe consumer for a portion of the perishable inventory from theavailable inventory offer list; and the communication module furtherconfigured to notify the merchant of the reservation.